Celebrating West Papua ‘Independence,’ OPM Calls for Non-Violence

Written By Voice Of Baptist Papua on December 1, 2012 | 8:56 PM

Perayaan HUT Kemerdekaan Papua

Jayapura. The separatist Free Papua
Movement (OPM) called for non-violent actions to free the easternmost
provinces from Indonesia as the group on Saturday marked what it
considers the 51st anniversary of the independent nation of West Papua.

Lambert
Pekikir, the chief of the OPM wing in the Papua district of Keerom,
said during a commemoration there that violence would not solve Papuans’
problems.

“We have to admit that we can do nothing now. As Papua
is still within Indonesian territory, we’ll have to make more directed
approaches,” Lambert said.

Those approaches, Lambert suggested,
should rely heavily on international negotiations aimed at amending
1969’s United Nations Resolution 2504, which concerned the handover of
then-West New Guinea — now Papua and West Papua — from the Netherlands
to Indonesia.

He added that the Indonesian government, in the interim, needed to be more open to the notion of an independent Papua.

“A
democratic space must be opened. The Indonesian government has no other
choice but to stop seeing Papua as a part of Indonesia,” Lambert said,
as reported by Indonesian news portal tempo.co.

The Dec. 1
celebrations by pro-independence groups in Papua appeared largely
peaceful despite prior warnings by Indonesia’s State Intelligence Agency
(BIN) of heightened security concerns ahead of the commemorations.

On
Tuesday, three police officers were killed in an attack on the Pirime
Police precinct office in the district of Lanny Jaya, with OPM’s Pirime
chief Purom Okiman Wenda claiming responsibility for the attack. OPM has
often been blamed for attacks on Indonesian security forces in Papua.

On
Saturday, the OPM office in Keerom only raised a Morning Star flag, a
symbol of Papuan independence that is banned by law, and conducted a
joint prayer to celebrate the day.

“No other activities... no shootings,” Lambert said.

There
were no reports of separatist attacks nor violent crackdowns by
Indonesian security forces across Papua and West Papua as of the time of
writing.

Police did arrest several pro-independence activists,
including the chairman of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB),
Viktor Yeimo, as they staged a rally in Jayapura on Saturday, but the
incident was largely peaceful and the activists were reportedly released
later in the day.

The supposed 51st anniversary of West Papua
was also celebrated by hundreds of Papuan students on Java and Bali, who
gathered in Yogyakarta on Saturday for a rally demanding Indonesian and
international recognition of an independent West Papua, according to
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